At 3.2 million tonnes per year, post-consumer plastic packaging waste is the most significant plastic waste stream in Germany. However, the recycling rate is low because the recycling process often lacks information on process-relevant material flow properties.

The ReVise-UP project aims to improve the process efficiency of the mechanical recycling of post-consumer plastic packaging waste. Continuous monitoring should enable intelligent material flow management and increase transparency and efficiency in plastics recycling. Therefore, sensor technologies such as near and mid-infrared spectroscopy in combination with methods of artificial intelligence are used at various stages of the plastics recycling process. The recorded data streams allow automatic inline material flow characterisation to adapt sorting, preparation and plastics processing to fluctuating material flow properties and thus achieve an increase in efficiency of the existing technical infrastructures and the ecological and economic optimisation of the overall life cycle.

DIN is responsible for standardisation within the project and, in addition to researching existing standards in the field of recycling management for plastic packaging, will transfer the project results to national, European or international standardisation.

Project duration

09/2023 - 8/2027

Project coordination

• Institut für Anthropogene Stoffkreisläufe (ANTS) RWTH Aachen

Project partners

• Krones AG
• Hündgen Entsorgungs GmbH & Co. KG
• DFKI - Deutsches Forschungszentrum für Künstliche Intelligenz GmbH
• SKZ Kunststoff Zentrum gGmbH
• STADLER Anlagenbau GmbH
• KRG - Kunststoff Recycling Grünstadt GmbH
• Wuppertal Institut für Klima, Umwelt, Energie gGmbH
• PreZero Recycling Deutschland GmbH & Co. KG

Associated partners

• Cirplus GmbH
• TOMRA Sorting GmbH
• Henkel AG
• Initiative „Mülltrennung wirkt“
• BVSE Bundesverband Sekundärrohstoffe und Entsorgung
• HC Plastics GmbH
• Procter & Gamble Service GmbH

Project funding

The ReVise-UP project has received funding by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) as part of the funding measure ‘Resource-efficient circular economy - plastics recycling technologies (KuRT)’ under the funding code 033R390. ‘KuRT’ is part of the BMBF research concept ‘Resource-efficient circular economy’ and is aimed at the high-quality recycling of plastics.